I have decided to open this thread to inform and to keep upto date all the PDF members and PDF guests about the atrocities and abuses of human rights practiced on a state level by the government of India.

Kashmir is a muslim majority area. It was occupied by India in 1948 against the wish of people who wanted to cede to Pakistan.

Today, India maintains more than 700,000 Indian armed servicemen to influence the life of Kashmiri people under the shadow of guns.

Kashmir ranks among the top five places where gross violations of Human Rights take place on a state level by India every year.

UN maintains Kashmir as a disputed terriotory. There are more then a dozen resolutions.

Kashmir is a part of Pakistan half of which is forcibly occupied by India.

Since 1989, an estimated 40,000 Kashmiris have been killed by the Indian forces stationed in Kashmir. For the last five years the people of the State have intensified their efforts in order to invite the attention of the world community towards the "Kashmir Dispute", though the people of the State had been fighting for their just cause peacefully for the last forty eight years. Indian Government throughout these four decades has been suppressing the people by illegal use of force, putting them into the jails/ Interrogation centres etc. under draconian laws. Whenever any person demanded holding of " Plebiscite", he has been put behind the bars.

The Indian Forces, stationed in Kashmir, have been given a free hand to kill any person they choose. These powers have been given to them under the draconian laws like "Disturbed Areas Act of 1990" and "Indian Armed Forces Act of 1990". Indifference shown by world community to the miseries of people, have encouraged and given a free hand to armed forces, to deal with the people, as they like. In October 1992, the Indian Armed forces started to intensify the killing of people immediately after their arrest. These operations have been carried out under the code name of "Operation Tiger", "Operation Eagle" and "Operation Shiva". Now the armed forces have resorted to another policy of "Catch and Kill" which means that no sooner a person is taken into custody, within minutes he is brutally tortured and killed . The dead body is then thrown into the street. In other cases, innocent civilians are arrested and taken to border areas where they are shot. The Indian government then publicises that these people were militants killed in armed encounters with the troops.

It is common practice for the paramilitary forces to walk into a quiet village/town and start shooting indiscriminately, killing innocent and unarmed civilians - all under the pretence of crack-down operations against the Freedom-Fighters. In most cases, innocent civilians are killed, women gang-raped and properties set on fire.

Indian armed forces have let loose a reign of terror and are pursuing with the policy of unabated killings, torture and brutal methods of killings in Kashmir State since 1989. Despite the fact that international community and Human Rights Organizations all over the World have registered constant protests against this policy of Indian Government in Kashmir, no change is visible in the acts of repressions and suppression at the hands of forces. In fact the death due to torture and in custody have alarmingly increased.

Many such incidents go un-noticed due to severe restrictions on the movement of people, constant crackdowns, curfews and other repressive measures by the forces. However, the Forum has been able to collect details about some such incidents which are based on personal information, print and electronic media and data collected by Human Rights activists. The officials and armed forces are in the habit of naming such killings as the result of so called encounters. But the fact of the situation is that most of such arrests are made during crackdown operations where people of the area are collected first, bodily searched before their entry in the specified area and then subjected to identification. The arrests of the people are made when such persons are totally unarmed and there is no possibility of any encounter with the forces. Such fake encounters are carved out by the forces in order to save themselves from the wrath of international community and over all public resentment.

On October 28th 1993, Robin Raphel stated that Washington did not recognise the Instrument of Accession to India as meaning that Kashmir is not forever more an integral part of India. She expressed the view that the whole of Kashmir is disputed territory, the future status of which must be determined in accordance with the wishes of the people of Kashmir.The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), based in Geneva, recently, passed a resolution proclaiming Kashmir's accession to India as bogus and null and void. The ICJ went further by condemning the human rights violations in Kashmir.

These events serve to highlight the disputed status of Kashmir by focusing on the fraudulent nature of the Instrument of Accession which was 'signed' by the Mahrajah of Kashmir on 26th October 1947.

The Indians claim that the Instrument of Accession was signed by Mahrajah Hari Singh on 26th October 1947, in which the Mahrajah agreed to accede to India in return for military assistance to put down the popular rebellion against him, seen at that time as an invasion by tribesmen from neighbouring Pakistan. The details of the accession were worked out between the Kashmiri Prime Minister, MC Mahajan and the Indian official, VP Menon, in Dehli. However, there are serious doubts about the signing of the document. Alastair Lamb (in his book, Kashmir - A disputed legacy 1846-1990) points out that the Instrument of Accession could not have been signed by the Mahrajah on 26th October as he was travelling by road to Jammu (a distance of over 350 Km). There is no evidence to suggest that a meeting or communication of any kind took place on 26th October 1947. In fact it was on 27th October 1947 that the Mahrajah was informed by his MC Mahajan and VP Menon (who had flown into Srinagar), the the Instrument of Accession had already been negotiated in Dehli. The Mahrajah did not in fact sign the Instrument of Accession, if at all, until 27th October 1947. This sheds doubts on the actions of the Indian regime. Some Indian troops had already arrived and secured Srinagar airfield during the middle of October 1947. On 26th October 1947, a further massive airlift brought thousands of Indian troops to Kashmir - BEFORE the signing of the Accession. Therefore, this situation begs the question: would the Mahrajah have signed the Instrument of Accession had the Indian troops not been on Kashmiri soil?

No satisfactory original of the Instrument of Accession has ever been produced in an international forum; a published form has always been shown. Further, the document was not presented to Pakistan or to the UN. In the summer of 1995, the Indian authorities reported the original document as lost or stolen. This sheds further doubt on whether the Mahrajah actually signed the Instrument of Accession.

The Governor-General of India at the time, Lord Mountbatten, stipulated that the permanent accession of Kashmir to the Indian Union will only be accepted once the people of Kashmir had been consulted. He noted in a letter to the Mahrajah, "the question of the states's accession should be settled by a reference to the people". Furthermore, when the Kashmir crisis broke out in October 1947, the principle of reference to the people through plebiscite was already established as similar disputes in some other states had been resolved this way. The Indian Prime Minister J Nehru, accepted this principle and reiterated his position in a letter to the British Prime Minister on 25th October 1947, "our view, which we have repeatedly made public, is that the question of accession in any disputed territory must be decided in accordance with the wishes of the people and we adhere to this view". Therefore, at the time of the so-called accession, the Indian regime accepted the principle of reference to the people. Based on this principle, the Instrument of Accession should have been provisional and conditional upon the outcome of a plebiscite.

When India took the Kashmir issue to the UN in 1948, it did so under article 35 of Chapter VI which outlines the means for a peaceful settlement of disputes. It is interesting to note here that India did not present the Kashmir case under the UN Chapter VII which relates to acts of aggression as India was alleging Pakistan. Therefore, it is evident that by raising the issue under Chapter VI, India recognised the Kashmir issue as a dispute, thus conceding that the Instrument of Accession had not confirmed the state to be an integral part of India. India is still party to all the UN resolutions on Kashmir. Moreover, India and Pakistan accepted the UN resolutions of January 1948 calling for a plebiscite in Kashmir to exercise the right of self-determination of the people of Kashmir. India's acceptance of the UN resolutions establishes beyond a doubt, that the future of status of Kashmir would be determined by its people. Therefore, the Instrument of Accession, even if genuine, is rendered null and void.

In the past, attempts to hold a plebiscite have been met with fierce opposition from India. India has known, right from the start, that the result of a plebiscite is a foregone conclusion - the population of Kashmir would have voted to rid themselves of Indian rule. This has been the case from 26th October 1947 to the present day. On the practicality of holding a plebiscite, a paper by the US state department, presented to the UN on 2nd December 1947, noted , "the dominion of India may attempt to establish the extant electoral rolls on the basis for the referendum. As these rolls are said to contain less than 7% of the population and were compiled on a basis which served the weight to the members of the wealthiest educated Hindu majority who would obviously vote for accession to India, it is important that the electoral body should in fact be composed on a basis of complete adult suffrage in order that the result of the referendum may be representative of the actual wishes of the people of Kashmir".

In view of the above arguments, it is clear that the Indian case on Kashmir is politically, legally and morally unjustified. The commitment made by India and the UN to allow the people of the state to choose their own future are neither time bound nor do they provide an escape clause for the Indian regime. It is only through fraud and repression that India continues to forcefully occupy a large portion of Kashmir.

Your sincere intentions & efforts for Kashmir cause is appreciated bro; and no doubt spreading message through media is also our responsibility

However, I am kind of getting touchy nowadays; 'Cries of Kashmir'; reptilians like Zardari don't even give a crap about 'Cries of Pakistan'; who do you believe in National Assembly, Senate, Presidential House, Media, Lawyers corner etc gives even a damn about Kashmir anymore, apart from any occassional politically motivated rant from a remote speaker and that also most probably would be from a person whom world has declared terrorists ... on practical grounds, we haven't moved a single inch

Americans played us well by opening another front for us; but I don't blame America; for a moment you wonder who actually is incharge of Pakistan at this very moment? Its like going down and down and all the way down ... who is gonna kick the b$tt of these looters and when? Coz they are the sole reason for our failures on every front including Kashmir

"As the conflict in Kashmir enters its fourth year, central and state authorities have done little to stop the widespread practice of rape by Indian security forces in Kashmir. Indeed, when confronted with the evidence of rape, time and again the authorities have attempted to impugn the integrity of the witnesses, discredit the testimony of physicians or simply deny the charges everything except order a full inquiry and prosecute those responsible for rape". (Asia Watch and Physicians for Human Rights, May 09, 1993)

"Since January 1990, rape by Indian occupation forces has become more frequent. Rape most often occurs during crackdowns, cordon and search operations during which men are held for identification in parks or schoolyards while security forces search their homes. In raping them, the security forces are attempting to punish and humiliate the entire community." ('Pain in Kashmir: A Crime of War' issued jointly by Asia Watch and Physicians for Human Rights, May 09, 1993)

"By beginning TV cameras and prohibiting the presence in Kashmir of the International Red Cross and of human rights organization, the Indian authorities have tried to keep Kashmir out of the news."(`Kashmiri crisis at the flash point', The Washington Times, by columnist Cord Meyer, April 23, 1993)

"(On February 23, 1991), at least 23 women were reportedly raped in their homes at gunpoint (at Kunan Poshpora in Kashmir). Some are said to have been gang-raped, others to have been raped in front of their children ... The youngest victim was a girl of 13 named Misra, the oldest victim, name Jana, was aged 80".(Amnesty International, March 1992)

"The most common torture methods are severe beatings, sometimes while the victim is hung upside down, and electric shocks. People have also been crushed with heavy rollers, burned, stabbed with sharp instruments, and had objects such as chilies or thick sticks forced into their rectums. Sexual mutilation has been reported".(Amnesty International, March 1992)

"The worst outrages by the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) have been frequent gang rapes of all women in Muslim villages, followed by the execution of the men". (Eric Margolis, The Ottawa Citizen, December 8, 1991)

"While army troops dragged men from their homes for questioning in the border town of Kunan Pushpura, scores of women say they were raped by soldiers....a pregnant Kashmiri woman, who was raped and kicked, gave birth to a son with a broken arm."(Melinda Liuin, Newsweek, June 24, 1991)[Anthony Wood and Ron MaCullagh of the Sundav Observer (June 02, 1992) estimated that over 500 Indian army men were involved in this orgy of rape and plunder in Kunan Pushpura.]

"Subjugated, humiliated, tortured and killed by the 650,000-strong Indian army, the people of Kashmir have been living through sheer hell for more than a year, the result of an increasingly brutal campaign of state repression. India hides behind its carefully-crafted image of "non-violence" and presents itself in international forums as a model of democracy and Pluralism. Yet, it is unable to stand up the scrutiny of even its admirers. All journalists, especially television crews, were expelled from the Valley. With no intrusive cameras to record the brutalities of the Indian forces, the world has been kept largely in the dark." (The Toronto Star, January 25, 1991)

"Young girls were now being raped systematically by entire (Indian) army units rather than by a single soldier as before. Girls are taken to soldier's camps and held naked in their tents for days on end. Many never return home....Women are strung up naked from trees and their breast lacerated with knives, as the (Indian) soldiers tell them that their breast will never give milk again to a newborn militant. Women are raped in front of their husbands and children, or paraded naked through villages and beaten on the breasts." (The Independent, September 18, 1990)

1. Educate yourself about the background for the Kashmir conflict. In doing so, do not fall for the massive Indian propaganda campaign launched to portray the Kashmiri freedom struggle as the work of terrorists.

2. Write to newspapers, TV networks, and to local as well as international politicians and ask them to help stop the Indian ethnic cleansing campaign in Kashmir.

3. Boycott all Indian products (such as food, clothing, leather goods, magazines and newspapers, audio/video cassettes and CDs with Indian movies or songs, etc, etc). For every penny you put into the pockets of the Indians, you are actually helping them to burn another house, rape another woman, or kill another child in Kashmir!

3. Boycott all Indian products (such as food, clothing, leather goods, magazines and newspapers, audio/video cassettes and CDs with Indian movies or songs, etc, etc). For every penny you put into the pockets of the Indians, you are actually helping them to burn another house, rape another woman, or kill another child in Kashmir!

You can bet I am in this subject group already, this includes to the Pakistani families which I have pursued into doing so - besides informing other non-Pakistanis whenever I have the ability to have a talk on Kashmir.

Hakim Bey: Don't just survive while waiting for someone's revolution to clear your head
Napoleon Bonaparte: The world suffers a lot, not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people!

Amnesty International has over the last months monitored with increasing concern the grave human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly against the backdrop of the first elections in the state since 1989. Amnesty International fears for the human rights of people in Jammu and Kashmir in the period before and during the forthcoming state assembly elections scheduled to take place in September 1996.

Immediately before and during the April/May elections to the Indian union parliament, the Lok Sabha, human rights violations appear to have reached a new peak. Prominent citizens, human rights defenders, journalists and political leaders have been particularly at risk of human rights abuses by government security forces, by militias under government control and by armed opposition groups. These included 23 members of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front who were reportedly deliberately killed by state police in March; lawyer and human rights defender Jalil Andrabi whose body was found floating in the Jhelum three weeks after his reported arrest by the paramilitary Rashtriya Rifles; several members of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference whose homes were on innumerable occasions the targets of attack, apparently by members of militant groups who had surrendered to the government; and Ghulam Hassan Pinglana, a former parliamentarian of the Indian National Congress in his seventies was shot dead in his village home in Pulwama district, allegedly by members of an armed opposition group in April.

During the elections, many members of the civilian population complained that they were caught between militant groups who threatened to abuse people who participated in the elections and the army and the so-called renegades threatening violations against those who did not.

The organization urges the Government of India to take all possible measures to ensure that the coming elections to the state assembly are not marred by further human rights violations. It also calls on the government to promptly set up impartial and independent inquiries into every reported human rights violation in Jammu and Kashmir, including torture and threats of torture, extrajudicial executions and arbitrary arrests of political prisoners with the view to bringing perpetrators to justice. Amnesty International urges the Government of India to provide all necessary protection to human rights defenders including journalists so that they may pursue their tasks without fear for their lives and safety. The organization also urges all armed opposition groups to desist from the practices of hostage-taking, torture and deliberate killing of civilians which are prohibited under humanitarian law.

The current paper, prepared in mid-June 1996, is entirely based on reports which Amnesty International has received from human rights activists, local and foreign journalists and victims or victims’ families in Jammu and Kashmir, as the organization has not so far been granted permission to visit the state. During a visit to New Delhi in July 1996, a delegation of Amnesty International submitted the report to officials in the Ministry of Home Affairs with a request for comment. By the time this report went to print, Amnesty International had not received a response.

This report summarizes a document (7,588 words), INDIA: Human rights abuses in the election period in Jammu and Kashmir (AI Index: ASA 20/39/96) issued by Amnesty International in September 1996. Anyone wishing further details or to take action on this issue should consult the full document below.

POONCH/SRINAGAR: Security forces killed eight militants in gunbattles at four different places along the Line of Control on Wednesday, the army said.

"By killing the militants we have foiled their attempt to infiltrate into Kashmir," army spokesman JS Brar said.

He said seven of the heavily-armed militants were killed in three separate encounters in northern Kupwara district on Wednesday and overnight.

The eighth militant was killed in southern Poonch district as he tried to cross the Line of Control (LOC).

A self-styled section commander of Hizbul Mujahideen identified as Noor Mohammed alias Mansoor was gunned down in a gunbattle in Doda district.. An AK 47 rifle and three magazines were recovered from the slain militant.

Another militant was killed by the army during an infiltration bid across the LoC in the Poonch sector.

In the valley, a group of heavily-armed militants from across the border sneaked into Tangdhar, 130 kms from here, in the wee hours, but army troops confronted them and in the ensuing firefight two militants were killed, a defence spokesman said.

Based on the historical evidence, one should not be surprised that these 8 men were picked up from thier homes during night raids, tortured and killed by the " bored "Indian security forces and now labeled as militants killed in encounter.

In occupied Kashmir, the Indian troops in their stepped up spree of killings, martyred 2828 Kashmiris during 2003.During the year 2003, 294 were martyred in custody. Of the total of martyred Kashmiris during the year, 135 were women and 46 children. 6009 were tortured or critically injured, 4188 arrested, 460 houses and shops arsoned, 349 persons abducted or declared missing in custody, 300 women gang raped or molested, 651 women widowed and 2169 children orphaned.

4093 Kashmiris martyred in 2002

In occupied Kashmir, the Indian troops in their stepped up spree of killings, martyred 4093 Kashmiris during 2002.According to data compiled by the Research Wing of During the year 2002, 915 were martyred in custody. Of the total of martyred Kashmiris during the year, 150 were women and 101 children. 8900 were tortured or critically injured, 5823 arrested, 1395 houses and shops arsoned, 554 persons abducted or declared missing in custody, 713 women gang raped or molested, 1078 women widowed and 2898 children orphaned.The total number of Kashmiris martyred from January 1989 to 31 December 2002 were, 84,850, including 6,267 custodial killing. Women raped or molested were 8997, structures destroyed or damaged 103,920, children orphaned 103,041 and women widowed 21175.

By Mian Ridge | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor from the June 24, 2009 editionPrint this Letter to the Editor Republish Email and shareE-mail newsletters RSS

Shopian, India - "Azadi!" – freedom! – yell the angry young men gathered in the road running through Shopian, an orchard-fringed village in Indian-occupied Kashmir.

Protests like this have spread across the state since the recent rape and murder of two young women here – and suspected involvement of security forces.

But as the shouts of youths here suggest, the demonstrations have become about more than justice for two murdered women. They have tapped into the continuing desire for freedom from Indian rule here in the country's only Muslim-majority state.

Government response angers locals

Immediately after the bodies of two young Muslim women, Nilofer Shakeel and Asiya Jan, were found here on May 30, locals suspected the involvement of security forces from nearby bases.

Anger rippled through the state when, only days after the incident, the state's chief minister, Omar Abdullah, said medical tests indicated the women had been neither raped nor murdered. Later forensic tests showed that they had, and Mr. Abdullah ordered a high level judicial inquiry into the crimes.

But by then the murders had triggered statewide protests. At least two people were killed and hundreds wounded. In Shopian this week, the protests continue.

This week, authorities said they would follow the recommendations of an interim report from the inquiry and suspend four police officers for destroying evidence and "dereliction of duty." The final report is due at the end of the month.

In Shopian, people say they will continue to protest until the culprits are locked up. "So far, the authorities have done nothing to help us at all," says Shakeel Ahmed, Ms. Shakeel's wretched-looking husband as he sits at home. Nearby, village children have gathered to play with the couple's toddler.

Desire for independence persists

In recent years the Kashmir Valley – once described by former United States President Bill Clinton as the most dangerous place on earth – has been relatively peaceful. The calm came largely due to renewed peace talks between India and Pakistan, which both rule portions of Kashmir but claim it in its entirety, as well as the adoption by many separatist groups of nonviolent means of agitation.

But most people in the state still yearn for freedom from Indian rule. Last year, a government plan to transfer land to a Hindu shrine in the state sparked the biggest pro-independence protests since the early 1990s.

Any crime that is suspected to involve security forces – an omnipresent reminder of Indian rule – tends to be seized upon by separatist groups. Despite the relative calm, some 600,000 security forces remain stationed in Kashmir. Their presence is bitterly resented.

"After the transition from violence to nonviolence in the separatist movement there is no need for the deployment of so many security forces in the villages," says Yaseen Malik, a separatist leader and former fighter. "Why should they be deployed in civilian areas when there is no need of them now?"

Officials consider softening military presence

The government has made some concession to that view. On June 11, home minister P Chidambaram announced the government would phase out large numbers of troops in the state.

In an interview at his residence, Chief Minister Abdullah said he supported the withdrawal of troops from the state, but that it would take a long time.

The government has also agreed to review the need for a despised law that gives the Army in Kashmir special freedoms. Human rights groups say the law has led to innumerable abuses against Kashmiris, including rape, murder, and torture.

Interest in resuming peace talks

Malik, like many here, says there are additional reasons to hope that the vexed issue of Kashmir, which has caused three wars between India and Pakistan since partition, is moving higher up the global agenda.

Since Singh's Congress party won a second term in power in last month's elections, there have been hopes of renewed peace talks with Pakistan.

In his first address to Parliament since the vote, Mr. Singh said India would meet Pakistan "more than halfway," if Pakistan did more to tackle terrorism.

And last week, Singh said he was prepared to hold talks with Kashmiri separatists. "I have not given up hope on Jammu and Kashmir," he said. "We are willing to engage in dialogue with anyone who is ready to shun violence."

Analysts believe that India has been encouraged by many separatist leaders' move toward peace in recent years – and the success of recent state elections.

Separatists here have always encouraged Kashmiris to boycott polls. But in December, Kashmir held its most successful, peaceful state elections in years. In Srinagar, the center of last year's massive protests, the turnout was more than 20 percent; up from five percent in 2002.

Nudges from the US may also have played a part. President Barack Obama said recently that the US should try to help resolve the Kashmir dispute so that Pakistan can focus on terrorism in its northwest rather than tensions with India.

And William J. Burns, the under-secretary of state for political affairs, said the aspirations of the Kashmiri people should be taken into account in any political settlement.

Back in Shopian, Shakeel's gray-bearded father is trying to make his voice heard above protesters shouting for independence. "She was my daughter!" he shouts to foreign visitors leaving the village. "She was 22 years old!"

First the two girls were abducted, gang raped and then drowned by the Indian armed servicemen. Then when the bodies were found, the matter was tried to be hushed up on the highest level. When the people came to streets and a strong protest was registered, India buckled under world pressure to save her dirty black face and ordered an inquiry results of which are not concluded to date !!

And offcourse, the spark of freedom living in the hearts of Kashmiris has not died and was clearly and visibly evident during the latest protests. One wonders when the UN will act ?

Four police arrested in Kashmir over suspected rape, murder of two women

Police accused of destroying evidence, "dereliction of duty" in the case

Authorities initially claimed the two Muslim women died of drowning

updated 11:46 p.m. EDT, Wed July 15, 2009Next Article in World »

SRINAGAR, India-administered Kashmir (CNN) -- Four police officers were arrested by the special investigation team probing the alleged rape and murder of two young Muslim women in India-administered Kashmir Wednesday evening, a senior police officer confirmed.

Kashmiri students protest over the alleged rape and murder of two Muslim women, in Srinagar on July 15.

The arrests were made on the orders of the state high court, which is hearing a "public interest litigation" filed by the Kashmir bar association, the senior officer said.

The senior officer said the arrests included the former police chief of south Kashmir's Shopian district and three of his subordinates, who are accused of "destruction of evidence" and "dereliction of duty" in connection with the deaths, which occurred in the town of Shopian.

The four officers had been suspended last month after an inquiry commission instituted by the state government indicted them, a doctor, a gynecologist and an official of the forensic science laboratory.

A division bench of the high court, including Chief Justice Barin Ghosh and Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, Wednesday also ordered DNA profiling of the four officers to be matched with biological evidence from the two victims, Asiya Jan, 17, and her sister-in-law, Neelofar Jan, 22.

The recovery of their bodies on May 30 from a village stream has kept India-administered Kashmir on boil. Two people have died and many have been injured in more than 300 in violent clashes between Muslim protesters and Indian security forces.

The authorities had initially claimed that the two women died of drowning in the stream, but under mounting public pressure and widespread protests the government was forced to institute a commission of inquiry.

The Kashmir bar association filed the public interest litigation in the state high court, which at its hearing ordered a senior police officer, Farooq Ahmad, to oversee the investigations being conducted by the police special investigation team.

And on Wednesday, the chief justice of the high court asked the people of the town of Shopian, 54 kilometers (33 miles) from Srinagar, to call off their 48-day-long agitation, which has shut down the town.

"We assure them that as the people of the state are behind them, so is the high court, and it would be our collective effort to ultimately solve the crime and appropriately deal with the perpetrator(s) of the heinous crime of rape followed by murder," the court order said

ST. LOUIS -- My trip to Pakistan, which I ended this week, was to be a relaxing getaway to my ancestral homeland. It was a surprise gift from my parents, who felt that I needed to take two weeks off to "clear my mind" from being an advocate for Muslim Americans after Sept. 11.

But instead of enjoying my 18 days away from work, I delved deeper into a cauldron of army advances, nuclear threats and imminent war. After coming to terms with the fact that the Almighty did not want me to rest on my voyage and after exhaustive talks with intellectuals, playwrights, shopkeepers and army officials, the cauldron seems ready to boil over at any time now. Imagine the scenario: Two Third World countries with nuclear capabilities are both poised for the fourth war that they have fought in their 55 years of existence.

India is ruled by an ultra-fundamentalist Hindu prime minister and Pakistan by a four-star general of the army who usurped democracy two years ago in a bloodless coup. Neither country has agreed to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The epicenter of their animosity is a beautiful valley region called Kashmir.

This scenario has been the status quo for a while now. In my days there, a prominent Kashmiri leader was assassinated, Indian and Pakistani armies have amassed unprecedented numbers of forces across their borders and reports rant about the imminence of war and a potential nuclear standoff.

Only through investigating the Pakistani-Indian collective psyche can one garner a true understanding of the conflict.

Pakistan and India were one country until a partitioned independence from British rule, in 1947. Pakistan was to be the homeland for India's more than 200 million Muslims. Although over 100 million Muslims remain in India today, there is continued hatred between the two countries over the disputed and occupied region of Kashmir.

Kashmir is a lustrous valley region in the northern region of the subcontinent. Although predominantly Muslim, two-thirds of the country remains under Indian occupation, with the remaining third a part of Pakistan. There is a permanent international "line of control" (LOC), where the two countries have almost continuously engaged in cross-border attacks in the past few years.

A United Nations resolution in 1948 promised a plebiscite in which the people of Kashmir would be able to decide their own political fate. Although over 90 percent of Kashmiris seek independence from both Pakistan and India, neither of them has relented.

According to figures by Human Rights Watch, there is one Indian soldier for every six Kashmiri citizens, making it the most policed region in the world. Amnesty International has further issued dozens of reports condemning the Indian Army for such egregious crimes as torture, rape and murder. The resolution passed 56 years ago has failed to execute itself, and thus the cries of Kashmiri women and children have fallen on deaf ears.

According to the people that I have interviewed, the continuing conflict between Pakistan and India is a matter of pride.

The extreme Hindu Bharata Janata Party (BJP), led by Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee, has treated Muslims badly in its country. Much of the resentment comes from the blatant atrocities performed on the Kashmiri people in their fight for independence. The resentment is further fueled by the recent sectarian violence in Gujarat that has killed over 2,000 innocent Muslims, more casualties than the entire current intifada in Palestine.

The governor of Gujarat, also a member of BJP, is under investigation for his potential complicity in the burning alive of thousands of Muslims. According to a retired brigadier general whom I spoke with, "Pakistan will no longer stand idly by and watch India continue to slaughter innocent Muslims."

In any event, the only plausible solution to the current crisis is to free the people of Kashmir from occupation.

When the Kashmir dispute erupted in 1947­1948, Canada, under the Liberal administration of Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent (1948-57), championed the stand that the future status of Kashmir must be determined by the will of the people of the territory, and that their wishes must be ascertained through an impartial plebiscite under the supervision and control of the United Nations.

Canada was one of the principal sponsors of resolutions 47, 51, 80, 96, 98 and 122 on the India­Pakistan question. These resolutions were submitted jointly among others by Belgium, China, Colombia, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

Following the resolution, Canada and other leading members of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan adhered to that position.

It was the distinguished Canadian, General Andrew McNaughton, who, as the president of the Security Council, sponsored the proposal for the basic formula for a settlement, and this formula was incorporated in the resolution adopted on 13th August 1948 and 5th January 1949.

I hope Canada can do more at reminding UN of her obligations to enforce the resolutions and for that I as one, has written to my district's MP and is awaiting reply. !

India turned Kashmir into the bitter place it is nowPosted by Rawan in Occupied Kashmir on 12 25th, 2008 | no responsesBJP Hindu nationalism has made the conflict more dangerous

Martin Woollacott

When sections of the Kashmiri crowd booed the Indian side and waved flags similar to the Pakistani flag at a match between India and the West Indies in Srinagar in 1983, the reaction in government circles in Delhi was fury. The Kashmiris, or, rather, the Kashmiri government, by not preventing the outrage, had failed the sub-continental version of the cricket test. Not many months afterwards, after underhand manoeuvres, the then Kashmiri chief minister, Farooq Abdullah, was toppled.

Recounting the story in his book on Kashmir, the distinguished Indian journalist MJ Akbar notes that there was at that time no serious Pakistani-supported subversion in Kashmir. Instead, there was an established pattern of Indian subversion of Kashmiri institutions and leaders. From the beginning, the Indians could not bring themselves to leave well enough alone in a state that had acceded to the Indian union - even in the Indian version of events - on the basis of a document which gave its government full powers except in foreign, defence and fiscal policy.

The story of Indian-held Kashmir had, from 1948, been of efforts to wear down and abolish the Kashmiri difference. There were periods when saner policies prevailed. But usually New Delhi wanted a crude mastery in Kashmir and it wanted Kashmiri leaders, notably Sheikh Abdullah and his son Farooq, to be utterly compliant allies. In this, it ignored the fact that any successful Kashmiri leader had to reflect to some extent the ambivalent feelings of part of the Muslim majority toward the Indian connection. It undermined and detained leaders when they failed to be as loyal as expected, and replaced them with worse men. Mrs Gandhi wanted Farooq out because he would not go along with what amounted to a merger of Kashmir’s main party with Congress. The cricket incident was a useful tool in the campaign to unseat him.

Rajiv Gandhi reinstated Farooq in 1987 but the rigged elections of that year reduced belief in the political dispensation in Kashmir, Islamic parties gained ground, the ranks of unemployed youth increased, and significant armed actions happened. New Delhi’s reaction was to send in disastrously hard-line administrators. One of them famously said: “The bullet is the only solution for Kashmir.” In the resulting campaign, with its reprisals, rapes, and killing of innocents, the insurgents were damaged, but the population of the Vale was comprehensively alienated.

The consequence was that, as Victoria Schofield writes: “No political leader prepared to voice the demands of Kashmiri activists and militants would be acceptable to Delhi; any leader of whom Delhi approved would be rejected by the militants.” In her careful and even-handed account she shows how the first phase of this deterioration preceded serious Pakistani intervention. Once it was under way, Pakistan certainly seized on the opportunity it saw, in both Afghanistan and Kashmir, to follow a forward strategy which would supposedly enable it to counterbalance India’s much greater strength.

But it was New Delhi which bore most responsibility for the dismal situation in Kashmir - first for the years in which normal politics in the state slipped into decline, and then for a counter-insurgency effort, which lacked the scrupulous care which alone brings a chance of true success in such campaigns. Indian governments later tried to repair the damage done in the early 1990s, even as Pakistani-supported subversion of a more Islamist character continued, with Afghan and foreign militants added to the mix.

But the Bharatiya Janata party’s arrival in government brought new and dangerous uncertainties, something now often overlooked by an outside world inclined to see an end to Pakistani-supported cross-border terrorism as a dependable step toward a Kashmir solution.

That is to forget that the BJP is not a normal political party, but the parliamentary wing of a Hindu nationalist movement that has already succeeded in radically changing Indian political culture for the worse. This is a party whose position on Kashmir has been not just that there can be no talks with Pakistan until cross-border terrorism ends, but that there can be no talks until Pakistan has handed over to India the part of Kashmir which it holds. This is the party dedicated to the proposition that Kashmir’s autonomous status, so often violated in practice, should be officially abolished. This is the party intent on getting rid of the separate civil code for Muslims.

It is true that Atal Behari Vajpayee, the BJP leader, has postponed or temporarily amended such BJP objectives in the interests of building the coalitions at which he is so adept. Many say that Vajpayee possesses a particularly gentle and winning personality. He has made an ally of Farooq Abdullah, and he has met Pakistani leaders twice as prime minister. He has almost certainly explored, in behind-scenes diplomatic meetings with Americans and others, prospects for a settlement of the Indo-Pakistani conflict.

Against this has to be laid the fact that BJP’s accession to power has made that conflict much more dangerous. This is the party that, enjoying the direct support of only a fifth of the voters, tested and deployed nuclear weapons, provoking Pakistan into acquiring nuclear weapons too. Some of its members have openly spoken of using those weapons against Pakistan in the event of a war over Kashmir, and some have called for the invasion and occupation of Pakistani-held Kashmir.

Nowhere else in the world, as the leftwing analyst and journalist Aijaz Ahmad says, have nuclear threats been so lightly thrown around.

This may be only foolish rhetoric. What is undeniable is that the BJP has changed the agenda of Indian politics, resulting in a situation in which the opposition often competes with the BJP in patriotic and anti-Pakistani statements, rather than providing a needed corrective. The way in which it has become generally accepted that India is a Hindu country with non-Hindu minorities, rather than a secular state of many faiths, is another example of the BJP effect. For a while there was an unhappy symmetry, with Pakistan and India veering toward their own forms of fundamentalism.

Aijaz Ahmad suggests that it is worth remembering, as the outside world takes a new interest in the sub-continent’s problems, that it is Parvez Musharraf of Pakistan who broke that pattern. At least let it be understood that India bears more ultimate responsibility for the Kashmir troubles than Pakistan, and that the confrontation between India and Pakistan would be a far less dangerous thing had it not been for the BJP’s communal thrust at home and its attempt to turn India into a nuclear great power abroad.

A study done by Medecins Sans Frontieres in mid 2005 reveals that Kashmiri women are among the worst sufferers of sexual violence in the world. Interestingly, the figure is much higher than that of Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Chechnya

Inspite of the fact that the violations of human rights in Kashmir are in direct disregard of the principles of international human rights and humanitarian law including the Geneva Conventions and the protocols additional thereto, no attention has been directed to address the issue at national and international levels. An appropriate response is necessitated by the fact that the violations of human rights in Kashmir’s armed conflict have had a direct bearing on its civilian population. Civilian victims, mostly women and children, often outnumber casualties among the combatants [1]. But women suffer in both differing and complex forms. They suffer directly by being subject to rape, molestation and torture and others whose relations are subject to atrocities suffer because of being related to them. It therefore becomes imperative to try and analyse the impact that the past 18 years of conflict have had on Kashmiri women. More so, because there needs to be an awareness and understanding that armed conflict and its impact affect women physically, psychologically, socially and economically [2]. The International Committee of The Red Cross (ICRC) places the impact of armed conflict on women under eight themes: Displacement, security, sexual violence, missing persons, detention, access to medicare, access to food and other assistance and protection under international humanitarian law [3].

Rape cases

A study done by Medecins Sans Frontieres in mid 2005 reveals that Kashmiri women are among the worst sufferers of sexual violence in the world. It further mentions that since the beginning of the armed struggle in Kashmir in 1989, sexual violence has been routinely perpetrated on Kashmiri women, with 11.6 per cent of respondents saying they were victims of sexual abuse. Interestingly, the figure is much higher than that of Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Chechnya. The state home department has no specific data in this regard for the last 17 years. This serves as a telling comment on the plight of women and on the indifferent attitude of the state towards addressing the issue. Cases of rape and molestation abound in Kashmir and many go unreported because of the fear of social stigma, and of reprisal by state agencies. And even in those cases, where the victims manage to transcend these fears and report the matter to police, they achieve little or no justice. More often, police refuses to lodge an FIR against the troops.

In Kunan Poshpora, a small village in Kashmir, the soldiers of fourth Rajputana Rifles allegedly raped about 30 women on the night of February 23, 1991, during a search operation while men were taken away from their homes and interrogated. The ages of women raped ranged from 13 to 80 years. According to newspaper reports, on June 17,1994, troops of Rashtriya Rifles accompanied by two officers Major Ramesh and Major Rajkumar entered into village Hyhama and allegedly raped and molested seven women. In another incident, troops raped a mentally ill old woman in her house in Barbarshah in Srinagar on January 5, 1991. Medical reports confirmed rape and locals lodged an FIR with the concerned police station, but the police did no investigation. She later died in 1998 while the FIR still awaits action from the state government. In another gruesome incident, an army Major in Badra, Handwara, raped Aisha, a 29-year-old woman and her 10-year-old daughter, Shabnum. These being just a few examples, incidents like these are plenty in Kashmir and ironically pass unheeded for.

Due to immunity of troops from prosecution and their own court martial proceedings, which are far from being unbiased, they are left free to do as they please. Dr Maiti, a professor of political science at Rurdwa University, West Bengal, explains, “Rape continues to be a major instrument of Indian oppression against the Kashmiri people while the majority of victims are civilians. This concept stands fortified by a report of ICRC dated March 6, 2001, where it has been mentioned that women are raped in order to humiliate, frighten and defeat the enemy ‘group’ to which they belong. Rape in a war is not merely a matter of chance; it is rather a question of power and control, which is ’structured by male soldiers’ notions of their masculine privilege, by the strength of the military line of command and by class and ethnic inequalities among women [4]. One of the reasons given by Radhika Coomaraswamy for sexual violence in armed conflict is that violence against women may be directed towards the social group of which she is a member because ‘to rape a woman is to humiliate her community’. Complex and combined emotions of hatred, superiority, vengeance for real or imagined wrongs and national pride are engendered and deliberately manipulated in armed conflict. For the men of the community, rape encapsulates the totality of their defeat; they have failed to protect their women [5]. The Special Rapporteur appointed by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in former Yugoslavia termed rape as not only as an instrument of war but as a method of ethnic cleansing intended to humiliate, shame, degrade and terrify the entire ethnic group [6].

The Geneva Convention related to The Protection of Civilian Persons In Times Of War, 1949 and Additional Protocols of 1977 provide that women shall especially be protected against humiliating and degrading treatment; rape, enforced prostitution or any form of indecent assault [7]. The Vienna Declaration and Programme Of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in Situations of Armed Conflict states that violations of human rights of women in situations of armed conflict are violations of the fundamental principles of international human rights and humanitarian law. Even though states are under an obligation to make grave breaches of Geneva Conventions and protocols additional thereto subject to the jurisdiction of their own courts and punishable by severe penalties. The domestic courts do not peruse the law laid down under the said convention for rape trials in conflict areas like Kashmir. However, rape is not explicitly listed as a grave breach of Geneva Convention, although acts willfully committed and causing great suffering or causing grave injury to body or health do constitute breaches.

The fact that rape has been systematically committed against Kashmiri women and that justice has not been delivered in these cases makes rape in Kashmir eligible for an appropriate legal response at the international level. The state has to be held for breach of its obligations under various relevant treaties and customary international law.The prosecution of individuals alleged to have committed rape should be done by the international criminal tribunal on the precedent of Nuremberg as the domestic courts and military court-martials have failed to deliver justice in these matters and are motivated by a state centric approach [8]. The focus of the tribunal should be to punish the wrongdoers, not on providing compensation and support to the victim.

The International tribunals are unique in that, they can be established during the continuation of the conflict and therefore they are untainted by the notions of ‘victors justice’. Prosecutions must be brought against the alleged perpetrators and those higher up in the chain of command [9].Rape is a grave crime as its consequences extend beyond the actual commission, often lasting for the rest of the life of a woman [10]. The social stigma associated with rape renders a raped woman unmarriageable, deprived of respect in the society and traumatised for the rest of her life. In some cases women become unacceptable even to their own families. The necessity to bring the perpetrators of rapes in Kashmir to justice can be understood from the fact that parties to conflict often rape as a tactic of war and terrorism [11].

Half-widows of the Valley

Enforced disappearance is one of the most harrowing consequences of the armed conflict in Kashmir. During the last 18 years of conflict, the Association Of Parents Of Disappeared Persons (APDP) [12], an organisation of the relatives of people who have disappeared after custody, claims more than 10,000 people have been subject to enforced disappearance by state agencies and were mostly picked up by the troops. Of the disappeared persons, between 2000-2005 a majority were married males. Although men have been subject to disappearance largely, but women have been adversely affected because of being related to them as daughters, mothers, sisters and wives. In the absence of any information about the whereabouts of the disappeared men, their wives have acquired the title of ‘ half-widows’. These half-widows apart from other relatives of disappeared persons are left without any entitlement to land, homes, inheritance, social assistance and pensions. Most of these women also suffer from harassment bythe troops.

Fahmeeda Bano, 37, lives in a remote Kashmir village of Kupwara and 14 years back the Indian army picked up her husband. She has gone from pillar to post searching for him but to no avail. She said, “If my husband is alive I want to see him. I want authorities to tell me where he is. If he has been killed let them hand over his body to me…”

The Indian government does not provide any relief to half-widows before the expiry of seven years from the date of disappearance. And even after the completion of seven years from the date of disappearance, they get either a one-time grant ranging from US$1,000 and US$2,000 or a monthly pension of US$10 [13]. Further, a half-widow cannot remarry until the expiration of seven years from the date of disappearance of her husband whose whereabouts must not be known in these seven years. In the meantime, the right to her husband’s property are often threatened. Some widows, who intend to remarry, largely do not find men who are willing to marry them. A study titled, ‘Women And Children Under The Armed Conflict In Kashmir’ done by Prof A G Madhosh, a Kashmiri educationist and activist, reveals that the migration of widows with their children resulted in a sudden break in normal family life. Women had to assume the roles of breadwinners for their families and the future of their children became insecure.

Every month the members of APDP gather for a sit-in-protest at Central Park in Srinagar. Their continuous protests should have served as a resonating alarm for the authorities, but they seem to have turned a deaf ear to the woes of these people. Fahmeeda Bano, 37, lives in a remote Kashmir village of Kupwara and 14 years back the Indian army picked up her husband. She has gone from pillar to post searching for him but to no avail. She said, “If my husband is alive I want to see him. I want authorities to tell me where he is. If he has been killed let them hand over his body to me. [14]“

Psychological Impact

With killings, torture, rapes, molestations, disappearances and detentions becoming the order of the day in Kashmir, psychiatric disorders have seen a sharp increase post-1989. In 1989, about 1,700 patients visited the valley’s lone psychiatric hospital and by the year 2003, the number had gone up to 48,000. Before the onset of the armed struggle, certain disorders that were not known to Kashmiris started showing a significant presence amongst the civilian population. The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD), one of the psychiatric diseases, which was completely unrecognised before 1990 has witnessed a major upsurge. Major Depressive Disorder (MDO) follows this. There are other mental diseases like bipolar disorder, panic, phobia; general anxiety and sleep disorders that have also shown four-fold increase as told by Dr Arshad of the Psychiatric Diseases Hospital in Srinagar. Substance Use Disorder or drug addiction and suicidal tendencies has been another repercussion of the ongoing conflict in Kashmir. Dr Arshad further added that the patients who come to seek help are largely in the productive age group of 25-30 years [15]. Dr Mushtaq Marghoob, a leading psychiatrist of the valley states that women bear the brunt of every tragedy. They have to support the family after the death of their husbands, fathers, sons or brothers. Dr Arshad further adds that women form a major part of the patients who are suffering from PSTD (almost 50 per cent). For women whose husbands have died, psychotherapy has failed to produce desired results.

A woman from Batmaloo, Srinagar saw the body of her brother who was killed in custody by soldiers of the Indian army, the body had been split open and his heart had been taken out. The shock rendered her in a state of disturbed bereavement and PSTD ever since. According to Dr Marghoob, women have become increasingly suicidal and are resorting to sleeping pills, injections and inhalations [16]. Even though a large number of people visit the Psychiatric Diseases Hospital in Srinagar, however, this is only a tip of the iceberg as large numbers of patients visit hospitals at the district and sub-district levels.

Nearly every person, particularly women, suffer from general anxiety and the uncertainty pertaining to the security of their family members. This always keep them in a state of unrest and anxiety. Even in their houses people are harassed, beaten up or taken into custody by the troops. The fact that the situation doesn’t seem to get any better, doesn’t promise a better mental state of the civilian population, especially women, in Kashmir.

In past few years, murders, rapes, torture, custodial deaths, and enforced disappearances have witnessed an upsurge, but the response of the state in addressing these atrocities doesn’t promise hope for justice. The official figures of these atrocities are far too less than the reported ones. The factual human rights situation in Kashmir has always been rendered invisible by the national security concerns of the government and the state centric approach of the Indian media [17]. Living in this environment of hopelessness, there are people like Parveena who are still willing to give a tough fight to powers-that-be. Parveena says, “I am determined to fight till my last breath, with or without anyone’s support”. People like Parveena need to be lauded for their determination.

It is being constantly projected in the mainstream media that the situation in Kashmir has improved, but the ever-increasing rate of human rights violations in the valley tell us a different story. People continue to suffer while the much-hyped slogan of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh proclaiming ‘Zero Tolerance’ towards human rights abuse stares him hard in the face!

Parveena Ahanger is the chairperson of APDP. Her son, Javed Ahmad Ahanger (then 16), was picked up by troops on August 18, 1990. Since then she has not heard of him. She says, ” We are fighting to obtain just some information of the whereabouts of our disappeared relatives. If they are alive, where are they? If they are dead, their bod ies should be handed over to us.

The widows have to suffer severely due to economic constraints and despite being entitled to government ex-gratis relief; they have to pay the concerned officers to get their grant-study done by Prof A G Madhosh (Kashmiri educationist). Haroon Mirani, ‘Kashmir’s Half Widows Struggle For Fuller Life.’ Asia Jeelani, Turmoil And Trauma. Ibid John T, Contemporary South East Asia. http://www.combatlaw...;article_id=997

Kashmiri people hold a flag of Pakistan and shout freedom slogans during celebrations marking Pakistani Independence Day in Srinagar. -AP Photo Pakistan

Scores of young men, some waving the Pakistani flag, emerged out of the Indian region's main Mughal-built mosque in summer capital Srinagar and staged a noisy pro-Pakistan demonstration.

They burst crackers and burned the Indian flag as police fired repeated teargas cannisters to disperse the demonstrators, who eventually retreated into narrow lanes from where they pelted officers with stones and bricks.

A nearly 20-year-old insurgency in Indian Kashmir has claimed more than 47,000 lives.

The majority of militant groups active in the Muslim-majority region favour its secession from India to neighbouring Pakistan. Few want total independence for the region.

Violence has declined in the state since India and Pakistan started a peace process in 2004 to resolve all pending disputes including Kashmir.

The dispute dates from the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 and the Kashmiri region is split between the two countries along a UN-monitored line of control.

In the early years of the insurgency, militants used to hold parades to mark Pakistan's national holiday, but these faded after India poured troops into the region.

The Indian army Friday took positions in buildings, including hospitals which overlook the venue for celebrations of India's Independence Day on Saturday which is boycotted by separatists.

Sharpshooters mounted machine guns and grenade launchers on the top storeys in Srinagar to keep vigil on Bakshi Stadium which will host a tightly guarded ceremony, the first to be attended by new leader Omar Abdullah.

The venue has been attacked by rockets and bombs on past Independence Days, which separatists mark each year with a strike. -AFP

SRINAGAR: Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control and the world over observed Indian Independence Day, today, as Black Day, which was marked with complete strike in occupied Kashmir and peaceful protests in the world capitals.

The Black Day was observed on the call of the APHC Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and illegally detained senior Kashmiri Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani.

All business establishments and shops were closed and traffic remained off the road in the occupied territory. All the towns wore a deserted look and the official functions were completely boycotted by the people.

Illegally detained APHC leader, Nayeem Ahmad Khan in a statement from Kathua Jail in Jammu said that India could not suppress the ongoing liberation struggle through use of brute force.

In Muzaffarabad, Hurriyet leader, Mohammad Farooq Rehmani led a procession and presented a memorandum at the office of the United Nations Observers Group. The memorandum strongly denounced human rights violations by Indian troops in the occupied territory.

The Executive Director of Kashmir Center Washington, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, presently in London, said that the international community had the responsibility to impress upon India to give Kashmiris’ their right to self-determination.

The militants were killed in a fierce gunbattle in southern Kashmir late Friday, on the eve of India's celebrations of its 62nd anniversary from British colonial rule, police said.

Since 1989, when insurgents launched a revolt against New Delhi's rule, separatists have marked festivities honouring India's independence as a 'black day' in the Muslim-majority region.

Separatists staged their traditional one-day anti-India strike to coincide with the celebrations, shutting down shops and businesses and emptying the streets of people.

The four militants killed by troops belonged to the region's most powerful guerrilla group, the Hizbul Mujahedin, which is fighting for the inclusion of Indian-administered Kashmir by neighbouring Pakistan, police said.

During the night soldiers also defused eight bombs planted by militants in the scenic Himalayan region, where authorities have sharply boosted security for the celebrations, said police.

'The attempt by militants to disrupt the Independence Day celebrations was foiled,' a police spokesman spokesman told AFP.

In summer capital Srinagar sharpshooters took up positions on top of buildings overlooking the venue for the main celebrations, as part of the heightened security.

The tightly guarded Independence Day celebrations were to be attended later in the day by Indian-administered Kashmir's new chief minister, Omar Abdullah, who was elected in May.

SRINAGAR: Four Indian police officials were suspended Monday over their handling of a rape and murder case that has sent shockwaves through the disputed Muslim-majority Kashmir region, officials said.

The death of a 17-year-old girl and her 22-year-old sister-in-law has sparked widespread anti-India protests in the Kashmir Valley since their bodies were found in a stream on May 30.

Indian police initially insisted they had drowned, despite allegations from family members that they were abducted, raped and murdered by members of the security forces deployed in the revolt-hit region.

Forensic tests later revealed they had indeed been raped, with police registering a murder case and India's home minister forced to conduct an urgent security review.

A state government official said the four officers, who were not named, 'have been suspended on the recommendation of the (judicial) commission' set up to probe the killings.

He said they were accused of dereliction of duty and misinforming state officials, including Indian Kashmir's Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

'The judicial commission has submitted its interim report to the government. It has established the violent crime,' the official told AFP.

Authorities have banned demonstrations in an attempt to curb the daily protests, which have so far claimed two lives and left over 400 injured.

First a few among the 700,000+ armed Indians occupying Kashmir against the will of people rape two women repeatedly. Then they forcefully drown the women to death. Then they try to portray it as accidental death. When the whole town protests, they ban the protests and demonstrations and to deflect the world condemnation, launches an inquiry and suspend 4 police officer. The end.

SRINAGAR: A former Indian Navy sailor turned Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist was killed in an encounter with security forces at Aarmullah in south Kashmir's Pulwama district on Sunday.

Pulwama SSP Kifayat Haider said Jan Mohammad Ahangar had deserted the Navy in 2004 after serving as sailor for three years. ‘‘He had joined the Navy after passing his class 12th exams in 2001,’’ he said. He returned to his native Tral in the Valley and joined the militant ranks in 2004.

The officer said Ahangar first joined Hizbul Mujahideen and then switched over to LeT recently. ‘‘He was the outfit’s south Kashmir commander,’’ he said. The security forces, who were hot on Ahangar’s trail, were tipped off on his presence at Aarmullah on Sunday morning. ‘‘He was killed in the exchange of fire after security forces laid a siege around his hideout,’’ the SSP said.

Haider said one grenade and two AK-series magazines were recovered from the encounter site. Sources said two of Ahangar’s accomplices, including a Pakistani terrorist, managed to flee after breaching the security ring around their hideout. One of them was identified as Zahoor Ahmad Mir of Armullah.

So how many Kashmiris will be tortured to death and labelled as killed in enounter by the Indian Amry engaged in terrorist acts and endorsed by the government of India before the UNO does something about it?

I for one, is sending a copy of all these news to my district's MP. I urge everyone else to do the same.

These terrorists acts undertaken by Indian army and endorsed by the Indian government must be brought to the world's attention !!

January 5 was celebrated by Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control, as the Right to Self Determination Day to commemorate the adoption of UNSC resolution on this day in 1949 granting Kashmiris the right to determine their own future. The day is also a sad reminder of Kashmiris not having been given their inalienable rights after more than six decades. In Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) the day was solemnly observed at the call of Mir Waiz Umer Farooq, the Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC).

In Muzzaffarabad, the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government and people renewed their pledge to continue the struggle for right of self determination until it is achieved. The AJK Legislative Assembly held a special session to mark the day. President Zardari addressed the session and put the world on notice that peace in Kashmir was linked to “peace in the region and time is near when superpowers and the countries in the region will have to make serious decision about Kashmir”. He reiterated Pakistan unstinted support to Kashmiris declaring that “we can give our lives, but will not let any harm come to Kashmir”.

While such rhetoric may have some psychological impact on the Kashmiris, the time has come to avoid cheap sentimentalism. Empty slogans will not bring nearer the freedom goal.

The sad fact is that Kashmir as a ‘core’ issue has lost its urgency and primacy as determinant of peace and security in the region. The world’s focus is no longer on this issue. Since 9/11 there is no more a legitimate armed struggle against foreign domination or alien occupation. It is seen only through the prism of terrorism. India has succeeded in preserving all its positions and has shifted focus from its unlawful occupation of Kashmir to the overall objective of advancing the peace process. What is worse is that capitalising on western phobia about Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism, the Indian propaganda machinery has subtly but effectively exploited this feat and equated the Kashmiri’s struggle for self determination to terrorist activity, supported by Pakistan. This well-orchestrated campaign has narrowed the parameters of the Kashmir issue to “cross-border terrorism.”

The Islamabad Declaration was indeed the beginning of erosion of our Kashmir stance. The UNSC resolution 1172 of June 6, 1998 was an extremely important development. It was after November 5, 1965 that the UNSC took cognizance of the Kashmir issue and urged India and Pakistan to resume the dialogue between them and on all outstanding issues, including Kashmir. Pakistan failed to use this resolution to revive and internationalise the issue again.

Furthermore, the Islamabad Declaration did not make any reference to the Lahore Declaration (February 21, 1999), Simla Agreement or the UN charter. Diplomatically speaking, this has been a major blunder. Kashmir is now only a bilateral irritant. Kashmir has lost the primacy, having been made subservient to the issue of terrorism, and in this context Pakistan’s unilateral commitment not to allow its territory to be used to support terrorism in any manner without seeking a reciprocal commitment from India is regarded by diplomatic observers as a great setback.

The fundamental shift in Pakistan’s Kashmir policy is primarily based on Musharraf’s appeasement policy with India. The gradual but steady silence on Indian atrocities in the IHK and a lukewarm projection of Kashmir in the UN General Assembly bears testimony to this change of policy. References from President Musharraf’s address to the world body during the last five years (2002 – 2006), reveal this tragic slide in our position.

The UN General Assembly is the most distinguished forum used annually by world leaders to explain their country’s policies before the international community; seeking its understanding and support to their problems. The statements by these heads of state/government constitute basic documents to gauge the foreign policy direction and their nuances for appropriate response by the concerned quarters. Ever since Pakistan joined the UN, the Kashmir issue has been the dominant theme of its statements, reflecting the depth of concern and importance Pakistan attaches to the Issue.

How abjectly Musharraf surrendered to India is manifest in the policy statements before UN General Assembly during its annual sessions which gradually became less concerned on Kashmir. On September 12, 2002, President Musharraf told the UN General Assembly that the “struggle of the Kashmiri people for their right to self-determination continues unabated despite the brutal repression and state terrorism by India. In the recent past, India has embarked on a sinister campaign to malign the Kashmiri freedom struggle by trying to link it with international terrorism. The Kashmir struggle cannot be delegitimised by such false claims”.

On September 24, 2003, Musharraf, in his address to the UN General Assembly’s 58th session, recalled “the brutal suppression of the Kashmiris’ demand for self-determination and freedom from Indian occupation” and invited the International community’s attention to the Indian policy “to suppress the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiri people to exercise their right to self-determination in accordance with the UNSC resolution”. He also castigated India for seeking to exploit the International anti-terrorist sentiment after 9/11 to delegitimise the Kashmiri freedom struggle and held India responsible for “refusing to implement the UNSC resolutions and perpetrating gross and consistent violations of human rights in Kashmir.”

Since 2004 there has been a complete turn-around. There has been no mention of Kashmir being “the most dangerous place in the world”, no mention of the right of self-determination, no denunciation of the Indian atrocities and no reference to the UNSC resolutions and certainly no reference to the indigenous freedom struggle of the Kashmiri people.

Addressing the September 2004 session of the UN General Assembly, President Musharraf studiously avoided all such expressions and restricted himself to “aspirations of peace both in India and Pakistan” and Pakistan’s firm commitment “to resolving all disputes with India peacefully, including the Kashmir dispute” and expressing the hope that “India shows the same sincerity, flexibility, and boldness that Pakistan will demonstrate”.

On September 15, 2005 President Musharraf addressed the 60th UN General Assembly Summit session. In his survey of global problems he disposed of the Kashmir issue in just one sentence, “it is essential to find a just solution of the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir acceptable to Pakistan, India, and above all to the people of Kashmir”.

In 2006, President Musharraf’s reference to the Kashmir issue in his UN General Assembly address was more puerile and commonplace. “Pakistan desires a peaceful environment in the region. We have been engaged in a peace process with India aimed at confidence building and resolving issue, including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute; which have been a source of tension and conflict between the two countries in the past.”

In 2007, President Musharraf did not attend the UN General Assembly due to internal political crisis. Pakistan’s delegation was led by the foreign secretary. Abandoning the right of self-determination has done tremendous damage to Pakistan and to the cause of Kashmir. It is not the LoC that has become irrelevant but the Kashmir issue itself in the overall context of bilateral relations. Despite government disclaimers that there has been no paradigm shift the crude reality is that Pakistan has altered its historic position and is now open to “new ideas” and “out of box” solutions.

Regrettably, the democratic government of Gillani has also continued the appeasement policy of Musharraf era. President Zardari addressing the UNGA on September 25, 2008 followed the tradition of his predecessor. He asked India to “resume the composite dialogue. We seek a peaceful resolution of all outstanding issues with India. Meaningful progress towards resolution of Kashmir dispute is necessary for durable peace and stability in South Asia.” Period. Zardari did not mention the UN resolution on Kashmir, nor did he raise the issue of Indian security forces’ brutal policies and continuing violation of human rights in IHK.

Gillani government, for its own credibility must examine the Kashmir policy in all its dimensions. Full-scale debate on our foreign policy with focus on Kashmir must be held in the parliament. A policy based on principles and sentiments of Kashmiris alone will restore the credibility of Pakistan’s avowed policy of support to Kashmir.

Tuesday, 18 Aug, 2009 | 07:47 PM PST | In 2007, a local group, the Association of Parents of Disappeared People, said it had found 940 ‘nameless graves’ in 18 villages in Uri district, which neighbours the Pakistan-administered zone of Kashmir. —Reuters/File photo World

SRINAGAR: Authorities in Indian administered Kashmir on Tuesday estimated the number of missing people in the state after decades of unrest at 3,400, less than half the figure suggested by rights groups.

Official figures released in the state assembly said 3,429 persons had disappeared between 1990 and July 2009, with only 110 persons missing after arrest by the security forces.

Leading local and international rights groups have suggested over 8,000 people have disappeared in the region, with the majority having been arrested by Indian security forces.

The government, which gave no further detail about the missing people, also ruled-out forming a commission of inquiry to probe all the cases of disappearances, a statement released in the assembly said.

In 2007, a local group, the Association of Parents of Disappeared People, said it had found 940 ‘nameless graves’ in 18 villages in Uri district, which neighbours the Pakistan-administered zone of Kashmir.

Amnesty International has urged the government to determine if any of the graves contain the bodies of those listed as missing by local rights groups.

Indian security officials contend many of the missing had crossed over to Pakistan to join the insurgents and say the graves are those of ‘unidentified’ rebels killed in action.

The insurgency has left more than 47,000 people dead by official count, while rights groups put the toll at 70,000 dead and disappeared.

However, the number of insurgency-related deaths in the state has fallen sharply since the start of a slow-moving peace process between India and Pakistan. —AFP

Indian government officially admiting and refusing to form a commission of inquiry in order to protect the Indian army occupiers for being involved in terrorist actitivties aginst people who refuses to be lablelled as Indians and mourns the Indian independence day as black day.

All that is happening infront of the world and the world does nothing !

Maybe my e-mails to the MPs highlighting the ongoing atrocities by India engaged in terrorist activities on a state level against unarmed innocent Kashmiris is showing results. I would like to think that way....

Maybe my e-mails to the MPs highlighting the ongoing atrocities by India engaged in terrorist activities on a state level against unarmed innocent Kashmiris is showing results. I would like to think that way....

Kargil was our best chance, now India has heavy lift capabiliy to re-supply its front, it also have large number of troops and also has learnt from the mistakes it made, in Kargil MANPADS and ATGM did the number on the Indian armour but that was 11 years ago

today we need to engage full scale war to cut Indian supply lines to Kashmir, that probably isnt going to happen, other choice is to get China to mobilize on the Eastern front which will panic the Indians then Pakistan can launch operation to take back Kashmir, we cant defeat all the Indians there cus there are like 700,000 of them stationed in and around Kashmir, but if we can cut their supply lines and encircle them it will be game over for India

We need to set up intelligence gathering centres in Kashmir by Kashmiris, who can give us the movements and locations of Indian army, study the Indian doctrine, find the solutions and cut the supply lines, main thing is cutting the lines, no lines no communication and hence no preparation from India for a war, 700,000 Indians starve to death

"The mosques are our barracks, the minarets our bayonets, the domes our helmets, and the believers our soldiers"